I apologize for the double post, but I just saw the new DLC for Ayesha, and I have to say someone needs to have a word with NIS. If they're going to sell ultimately pointless DLC like costumes, they might want to try pricing it a little cheaper than $3 each. For the new characters, I can kind of see $3, but for a simple costume? Feh.

You should probably be saying this to Bamco, not NISA or GUST.

On the subject of the new screens, I like how down-to-earth most of the male characters are, which is in contrast to the more over-the-top females, a similar trend to Ayesha. On the graphics: I feel like the models aren't necessarily as high of quality, just from the stills. I don't quite think that GUST is familiar with their new engine yet as overall they've taken a graphical step down. It's not bad, mind you, I just am feeling nitpicky.

On an entirely unrelated note: The song played in Ayesha's Atelier after you complete the main storyline has the "item creation" sound effect at 3:30.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Lxfx7cp_EAre there any other songs that do clever little additions like this that I've missed?

^ Ayesha, rather the Atelier series is a bit of a tough thing to reccomend.

I think if Gust spent another...maybe few weeks or a month to polish the games, they'd be bumped a full-letter grade. And while the alchemy system is extremely well-done and incredible in-depth, too much of the rest is somewhat sloppy (music and artwork aside). Since Rorona, the graphics have gotten exponentially better. But, and in Ayesha, there are about 10 variaties of enemies and I think only 3 storyline bosses (so yeah, the rest are enemies and harder versions of those enemies as "area bosses"). The game is also dialogue-heavy, which is good if you love light-hearted anime, but bad to the rest of the world because the "quality" of writing (rather lack of) makes cutscenes a drag and the characters as 3D anime tropes.

There's also a lack of direction in the games. Of course, Ayesha is the most lenient of the [traditional-style] Atelier games.

If you can excuse that, I totally recommend it because there are few games quite like the Atelier series that really exist.

It's sad to hear about the lack of polish, especially the lack of bosses. I started playing the Atelier series this gen and finally in the 3rd game (Meruru) when I started getting good and actually owning the bosses with my alchemy this game gas only 3...The thing about the light-hearted anime style suits me fine, I think it's perfect for those days you want something to relax. The sad thing is it as once again the dual audio thing, as I like to use these games as a way to practice my japanese. If think I've gained quite a bit of vocabulary playing through these 3 atelier games. The characters dialogue has in my opinion a perfect tempo for an average speaker like me (the dialogue rarely have obscure words, no one speaks too fast and there aren't many hard structures in their grammar)

In short, I'll just wait to see if I'll gain the US version, if not, probably before June I'll get the downloadable version on PSN or get the discounted "best" edition from Japan.

Sure, why not? Not the strangest thing to pitched as a ______ Warrior.

Really? I'm curious as to what you think is stranger. I mean Gundam and One Piece both make sense to me because crushing hordes of enemy soldiers is a common thing in both universes. Atelier just seems a weird fit to me because the Atelier game really aren't about fighting......I would probably buy it, but I don't think it would actually work.

I could buy the Atelier Iris characters doing it (maybe not the ones from 3), but the only other Atelier protagonist I could see doing that is Meruru. She takes out like 3 dragons if you're good at the game.

I could buy the Atelier Iris characters doing it (maybe not the ones from 3), but the only other Atelier protagonist I could see doing that is Meruru. She takes out like 3 dragons if you're good at the game.

To be fair, I'm imagining the protagonists using a few basic attacks and alchemy items while capturing various Atelier points to craft and then throw around whatever abominations alchemy has wrought like Barrels! and stuff.

That or the playable characters are the bodyguards and the protagonists are the various points to capture and they'll make and hand out items of unusual intent to those who've captured them.

Seems like the normal time frame to me. More like "yaaay they confirmed we're getting it finally" though that too seems to be within the normal time frame. Certainly sooner than Ayesha at least that took until, what, early this year?

Seems like the normal time frame to me. More like "yaaay they confirmed we're getting it finally" though that too seems to be within the normal time frame. Certainly sooner than Ayesha at least that took until, what, early this year?

Being a Westerner and expecting a JRPG is usually a matter of "finally" getting it. Please don't read into it.

Seems like the normal time frame to me. More like "yaaay they confirmed we're getting it finally" though that too seems to be within the normal time frame. Certainly sooner than Ayesha at least that took until, what, early this year?

At least they actually confirmed it's coming rather than 'randomly showing up on your PSN doorstep one day with a note attached going "Here you go."'.

At least they actually confirmed it's coming rather than 'randomly showing up on your PSN doorstep one day with a note attached going "Here you go."'.

Well, they confirmed that Meruru Plus was coming but they still didn't tell anyone when and it still just randomly showed up on the PSN one day. I suppose that's better than Totori Plus where they didn't even announce they were doing it at all...

I'm pretty sure they said Meruru was a September release. I forget if a specific date was mentioned or not, but at least that moves more to about the same realm as many DD releases rather than just dropping on everyone out of the blue.